This invention relates to a computer search system for retrieving textual and graphical information through multiple textual and graphical entry paths into a database.
Recently, there has been a rapidly growing interest in using CD-ROM technology as a dynamically interactive way of presenting material contained in books, encyclopaedias, magazines, catalogs, etc. CD-ROMS offer a set of characteristics that are unique for this purpose. First, they have a very high information storage density (approximately 50 times magnetic material), rapid random access of addressable information, low cost mass produced copies, and relatively low cost playback equipment. Second, by interfacing a CD-ROM player and CRT monitor to a computer, stored audio/visual data can be accessed interactively in a variety of user friendly ways.
Yet with this explosion in storage capacity and quality, there arises a need for software that readily and easily accesses this full spectra of data in a user friendly manner. Despite the great potential for interactive CD-ROM systems, however, many of the current commercially available versions have important limitations in meeting this need. These limitations include products lacking entry paths into the CD-ROM database to retrieve graphical information, products that cannot flexibly search and retrieve different types of data formats, or products that will not allow the combination of search strategies to uncover graphical and related textual information or visa versa. Other limitations exhibited by some software products include the lack of interactive search tools adapted for non-expert users, and the lack of interactive search tool that fully explore and exploit the full capabilities of a CD-ROM database.
An example of some of the above limitations is demonstrated by the Grolier CD-ROM based encyclopaedia. The Grolier product provides an interactive search tool that allows for the access of textual data through four search modes. The first search mode involves a Browse capability where the user types in the first few letters or words of a particular topic and the software then displays a menu listing the article titles that are closest in the alphabet to the search terms. The user can then scan forward or backward through the alphabetically arranged titles until an article of interest is found.
The second search mode is known as the Browse Word Index. In this mode, the user selects the word occurring in any of the articles in the display. The software then sorts entries in descending order of the words, based upon the number of times that the specific search word occurs in the text. A third search mode involves expanding the Browse Word Index Mode to combine Boolean operators such as "and", "or", or "not", and the fourth search mode involves linking terms appearing in the articles that are designated by capital letters. In particular, by depressing the RETURN key while the cursor is located on the linking word, the search software will retrieve a menu of article titles centered on that linked term.
However, the Grolier system only accesses textual data by means of text-based entry paths. No facility exists for taking advantage of the CD-ROM's capacity to store pictures, sound, or video information.
This shortcoming of a full text/graphics interactive search system is not overcome by those products that are directed to searching graphical databases. That is because the graphics oriented systems fail to either include any text-based entry paths or text entry paths that would enable the user to employ the full capacity of the CD-ROM.
For example, The World GeoGraph computer program provides a graphics based atlas exploration program where a user can search through multiple layers (each layer having a greater degree of detail) of an on-screen map. The GeoGraph database is also integrated with information relating to each country of the atlas and the search program includes a feature for using plain English selection rules contained in dialogs to search and sort information pertaining to the maps. The World GeoGraph program, however, pertains to a textual search of only that textual information that explains the graphical database and the text information is retrieved only by means of a single entry path. World GeoGraph thereby does not appear to provide full textual search capabilities of an entire textual database that is distinct from the graphical database.